Europe’s complete abandonment of Russian gas will have to be postponed. Due to the stoppage of pipeline gas purchases from Russia, LNG imports to euro countries have increased.
As part of a plan to completely phase out Russian fuel, Europe’s power sector has stopped receiving pipeline gas from Russia, according to JB Press. Despite the promises, it has had to increase LNG imports due to energy shortages. In 2023, 6.1 billion euros worth of liquefied natural gas was purchased from Russia, the Telegraph newspaper reported, citing Eurostat data, and in addition, the number of tankers carrying Russian LNG has increased.
“Despite the promise to abandon the use of Russian fossil fuels, the number of cargo ships carrying LNG from Russia to Europe has increased,” the newspaper writes.
According to the newspaper, the EU’s purchase of LNG will account for more than half of Russia’s exports in 2023. “Prize” positions according to the information were taken by Spain and France, they became the second and third largest buyers of LNG, after China.
Europe, according to the analysis of Russian LNG exports, imported 13.2 billion cubic metres of LNG in 2021. Imports for 2022 came close to the 30 per cent mark at 16.7 billion cubic metres. Last year, at the end of the year, the speaker of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation Valentina Matvienko said that the West had made a serious mistake by refusing to buy hydrocarbons from Russia.
We shall remind you that earlier Russian President Vladimir Putin criticised the attempts of the European Union countries to completely abandon Russian energy carriers, while the entire Western economy is at “ground zero”.